I am posting this report in efforts that some action will be taken against World Wide Van Lines and the subcontractor they use World Wide Transfer.
I lived in Fayetteville, NC with my parents and we were scheduled to move up to South Attleboro, MA. My father arranged with Blake Damato of World Wide Van Lines to move us out the week of May 27th. We were told the movers would show up with their crew on Tuesday. After a late phone call that afternoon, we were told they would arrive on Wednesday. The crew that arrived consisted of 2 men, CJ and Gill, and a Penske moving truck. They informed us that more people would be arriving tomorrow to assist with the pack out and that they were responsible for boxing of all our stuff. They stayed until 8 PM but only boxed up half the apartment. CJ told us he and Gill would return by 7 AM tomorrow.
On Thursday, May 31, the first person to arrive was a local hire worker at 9 AM. He told me he answered an open-call on Craigslist from Rebecca. The ad mentioned that an old woman needed help moving out of her apartment. I was stunned and told him to hold on until the moving truck arrived. CJ and Gill arrived at 9:15 AM. Only one more local hire, a college kid, showed up to work at 10 AM. To assist in the move, I joined in to help get things underway.
We packed the whole apartment into the Penske moving truck by 11 PM. During the day, the first two local hires bailed due to other obligations, and two more were called in to replace them. The second set of men only stayed for two hours as CJ said he was only paying them to pack boxes and not load the truck. I, on the other hand, continued to assist.
The truck was filled to capacity and then some. While some furniture was given some padding, smaller items were stuffed into boxes without any record and stacked unsecured "Tetris-like" into the truck. Many of the boxes went unlabeled. Materials such as cardboard boxes and tape ran out, and we had to make a trip to Lowe's to buy more. CJ said if we went to buy the packing materials, we would not be charged the additional $600 expense. I mentioned this as we were charged for a box to carry a 30 inch LCD TV but none was used.instead, the TV was positioned between two mattresses. This was a technique that CJ preferred.
We reached a NC weigh station by 11:30 PM. CJ drove fast in the Penske truck nearly toppling over at 75 mph down I-95. The whole load weighed 30,000 lbs; the base weight of the truck was 10,000 lbs. This surprised us as the military originally moved my parents from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Fayetteville, NC and the original shipment weight was approx. 12,000 lbs. Although I moved in with my folks some months later, my added weight by no means totaled 8000 lbs. To complicate matters, what was in the apartment represented 80% of the original household shipment. There was a storage unit that was yet accounted for.
My belief is that we were cheated on the weight. First, my dad predicted that weight of our total belongings would be 13,000 lbs. Blake denounced the statement and said that was impossible for a 2 bedroom apartment. My father was forced to agree on a contract that allowed only for 11,500 lbs load with value placed on each pound of overage. The truck had to be miss weighed. There is no way that 80% of our stuff amounted to 20,000 lbs alone.
CJ called his boss Bobby (later described as a man of Indian heritage and New York accent). Bobby was informed of the weight and proceeded to lose his cool. The phone was then handed to my father. Although I did not hear the conversation, I watch the blood leave my father's face and he turned white as ghost. Bobby used profane language and made accusations that my father was a deadbeat and purposefully screwing him on the move. He demanded a full payment over the phone before moving the truck load any further.
My dad agreed to make a small payment of $700 if arrangements were made for the moving truck to arrive on Monday and that the storage unit in Fayetteville NC was taken care of. We had no money to pay for another month. Bobby indicated to my father that he should just "walk away" and leave the storage unit as is. My father said that was wrong, and Bobby agreed to take care of the matter.
Fast forward to Sunday, June 3rd. The moving truck arrived a day early, because Bobby wanted CJ and Gill to unload the truck and move on to the next project. Another round of phone calls ensued with Bobby demanding payment from my father and continuing his verbal abuse. Both CJ and Bobby insisted that a second truck was in Fayetteville, NC picking up the remainder of our belongings from the storage unit.
Two more local hires showed up, and local police detail was hired to direct traffic. One of the local hires, Chuck, was an utter clod in putting boxes in the house. He threw things everywhere and took no care as to make sure "fragile" boxes were protected. We found a few buried at the bottom of a heavy stack. When I confronted Chuck to slow down and take care of where he was stacking stuff, he repeated the same thing, "No time, no time. Got to get paid. If you want, you can hire me to come back tomorrow." One of the local hires left after only 90 minutes of work.
None of the boxes ended up in the places they needed to be. The basement was in total shambles as boxes were placed everywhere and anywhere. Additionally, some of our basement belongings were left outside on the rear lawn. My parent's bed had to be unburied due to rush job that was being done.
At the end, CJ and Gill left in a hurry. CJ reiterated what Bobby had said that the second moving truck was on its way and would arrive by Friday.
Gill was helpful throughout the whole ordeal. This is the only nice thing I can say about the whole move. I got the sense from Gill's demeanor that his boss Bobby was shady from the word go. He is abusive to everyone, customers and employees alike, and finds this behavior okay.
The end of the week came and we heard no word from anyone about the second truck. On a hunch, my parents called the storage facility in NC we used. We found out that no moving truck had come for our belongings and that fees and a second lock were placed on our unit due to payment neglect.in total, $7300 was paid to World Wide Transfer and the move was still incomplete. We have contacted Blake on numerous occasions and have only found his answering machine.
This is the first time my folks and I have been packed out by a civilian moving company. Beforehand, government moving companies had done this service. They were professional, organized, and everything was packed, shipped, placed and rebuilt in their new destination.instead, World Wide Van Lines and World Wide Transfer are responsible for incomplete service, mislabeled and broken goods, and lowest bid workers.
From this experience, my folks and I have been stressed emotionally and financially. We are struggling to figure out a solution to get the rest of our belongings up here as we can't afford it.
What I want is for our belongings to moved up here without an additional fee to us. We were given promises and accepted in good faith. I want World Wide Van Lines and World Wide Transfer to be held accountable for breakages and extra fees my family has had to endure in coming North.
We were treated unfairly and are still paying the price for negligence.
Noah
South Attleboro, MA
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